Leaving Bluestone (3 page)

“But?”

Lily looked at her friend from beneath her lashes.

Trinity sat back. “Quinn. No progress on that front?”

“He danced with me at your wedding, then got the call from Linda and Beth and all was forgotten.”

“So? If it was easy, it wouldn’t be as much fun. I mean, look at Adam. If you’re looking for easy, that’s it. But he doesn’t light your fire like Quinn.”

“I give Quinn opening after opening, and he holds me off, except for that one kiss.”

“So find out why, other than that tired old excuse that he’s leaving town. He hasn’t had the bar listed in the major papers for a while, just that same old sign that no one pays attention to anymore. And when Leo made his offer, he didn’t jump on it. So maybe he’s not as serious about selling as you think.”

Lily swept her hair back over her shoulder. “So what am I supposed to do about it? He isn’t so good at taking hints.”

“Then if you want him, you’re going to have to be forthright. You know him better than anyone in town. You’re just going to have to figure out which way will work for him. Now, show me what you’ve been working on.”

***

Quinn looked at the answering machine in horror. The only reason he had the thing was because he hated talking on the phone, and this let people get in contact with him. Of course now he wished he didn’t have the damned thing and wouldn’t have to hear that message.

Gerry’s parents were coming to Bluestone. They said they wanted to see the place their son had loved so much, and wanted to check in on Quinn to see how he was doing. Okay, he’d probably brought it on himself by not returning any of their calls, letting them know he was managing. And, well, he hadn’t checked his voice mail in a while. They were coming this weekend.
Shit
.

He crossed the street to the landing. Lily looked up in surprise when he entered and leaned on the counter. She was wearing glasses as she worked on paperwork and looked goddamned adorable.

“I didn’t know you wore glasses,” he said.

Flustered, she took them off and set them on top of the stack of papers. “Only when I’m working with numbers. Math isn’t really my thing, so I have to pay close attention.”

“You don’t do that on the computer?”

She made a face. “I do it first, then double check myself using the computer.”

He rolled his eyes. “Double the work.”

“But I know it’s right.” She straightened. “What brings you across the street?”

He shifted from foot to foot. He was aware she came to his place way more than he came in here. “I just got a call from Gerry’s folks. They’re coming out this weekend, and I don’t exactly have a place to put them up.” His house behind the bar was two bedrooms, but two very small bedrooms, and only one bathroom. And he’d lived alone since getting out of the military. He didn’t do well with others in his space. “Can I rent one of your cabins for them?”

She’d paled, just a little bit, and her hand went to her stomach. Damn, he should have prepared her better. Gerry’s folks were coming, and she’d been Gerry’s lover. Had she ever met them? Since she never left Bluestone and they lived in Boulder and had never been here, probably not.

But then she composed herself and was business as usual. “Sure, I’m pretty sure we have a vacancy.” She reached for another book to the side and flipped through the pages.

“How much would it be for the weekend?”

She looked up. “Nothing. We’re friends, Quinn.”

“Doesn’t matter. You need to make a living.”

“How many free Cokes and on-the-house beers have you given me?”

“Not enough to pay for a weekend at the lake.”

“If it’s not rented yet, I’m not going to make any money on it this weekend anyway,” she told him reasonably.

“I pay my way.”

“You’re my friend. They’re Gerry’s parents. Don’t. Worry. About it.”

He grunted. “Fine.” He’d find another way to repay her. “So. They’ll probably want to see you, too.”

“Why?”

“You were the last girlfriend Gerry had.”

She gave an awkward laugh. “I don’t know that I’d call myself his girlfriend. Just the woman he slept with when he came up to the lake.”

“And the woman he wrote to when he was deployed, who he’d video chat with when he got a chance. He talked about you all the time when he was there.”

She focused on the paperwork in front of her, but her hands were shaky. “Well. I suppose he wanted to be back here.”

Did she really not know? “Lily, he loved you.”

She drew back, her eyes wide, her knuckles white on the edge of the counter. “He never said.”

“Well, he should have.” Quinn shifted his weight. He would have, before, if he’d had the right.

Lily was still staring. “So his parents think we were in love?”

She hadn’t moved a muscle since he’d told her what he thought she already knew. Quinn braced his hands on the countertop, unsure how to proceed. “They know who you are. I don’t know if they think you were madly in love or whatever. But just be aware they might want to get to know you.”

She pushed to her feet and moved to the corner, her arms wrapped around herself. “Quinn, I don’t know what I can say to them. We hung out, we—went to bed together.” She blushed as she said it. “But there weren’t deep conversations or plans for the future, aside from the two of you buying the bar.”

“You cried when he died.” He couldn’t help his tone from being accusing, and she recoiled.

“Because it was horrible. He was my friend, a guy I’d spent time with and enjoyed, a good guy. He never should have been there, never should have died that way. Sometimes it makes me miserable knowing he’s not on this planet anymore. But there wasn’t a happily ever after planned for us.”

He drew back. Had he misread the whole thing? He’d been there for almost the whole relationship, when they’d met Lily when they’d come to rent a boat, when Gerry had insisted that Lily accompany them to go buy their own boat. Quinn sold it after Gerry died, sent half the money to his parents, and bought himself a used boat that he was still making payments on. He’d watched Gerry’s flirtation with Lily become more intimate, then Gerry started spending nights at Lily’s place. Still, during the day they were a threesome, though Quinn had felt a pang of jealousy at Gerry finding the perfect woman. And when they’d shipped out again, she had come to the airport to see them off. She’d cried and wrapped Gerry in a passionate embrace.

And when he’d returned to Bluestone without Gerry, when he’d had to tell her Gerry died, she’d fallen apart, sobbed and sobbed, and Quinn held her in his arms and cried, too. She hadn’t smiled for a week, her eyes had been red-rimmed and swollen. She’d spent all her free time around Quinn, not talking about Gerry, but needing to be near him. And he’d wanted to be near her.

He still wanted it, too much. If Lily hadn’t been in love with Gerry, maybe a future was possible.

No, it would be wrong. Gerry had slept with Lily, had loved her, and he wasn’t here to live the life he was supposed to have lived. Quinn wasn’t going to take it over for him. It wasn’t right.

He pushed away from the counter, as if that was the only way he could separate himself from her. “Thanks. For the cabin, I mean. They’ll be in Friday night.”

“It’ll be ready for them.”

Something about the way she was looking at him, like she’d maybe figured something out, made him beat feet.

He was going to have to work harder at selling the bar before he did something entirely stupid.

***

Lily was busy at movie night when Gerry’s parents arrived, so Quinn had to greet them on his own. He’d started closing the bar early on Fridays for the movies, then reopening afterwards, so he was on his own with Rick and Maria Parrilla. Maria, a tiny woman, flung herself into his arms the moment he opened the door of his house behind the bar. He had to bend himself in half to return her embrace. Because he wasn’t accustomed to displays of affection, his response was awkward.

When she released him, he straightened to shake Rick’s hand, and jolted at the man’s resemblance to his son. Gerry had more hair, yeah, but damn, it was like looking into his friend’s eyes.

Then he looked past him to see a third person, a woman. Gerry’s sister, Theresa. Man, had she grown up since the last time he’d seen her. She looked at him through long, black lashes, her lipsticked lips curved in a smile. Holy hell. He recognized the look—he’d run from it more than once. He didn’t know how far he could run this time.

“Hey, Theresa. I didn’t know you were coming. I, uh, got you all a cabin over at Lily’s. Not sure if it has two bedrooms. We can go see.”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Maria said, her hand on his arm to stop him when he would usher them out. “I want to see where you live. And then I want to see the bar.”

“I, um, haven’t exactly prepared for company,” Quinn said, following her into the living room helplessly. What was he going to do, kick her out? The place was, well, not messy so much as lived-in. It was a crummy little pre-fab with fake log walls, a real fireplace that didn’t do much to heat it in the winter, mismatched furniture, and fishing paraphernalia around. He kept his clothes put away and didn’t hang animals on the wall, but the house didn’t have much to recommend it besides that.

“Is this where you and Gerry lived?” Maria asked, heading down the hall.

Quinn followed, inexplicably nervous. His bed was made—habit from the military—but other than that, his room was, again, lived-in. “He did. Most of the time.”

“Until he started seeing this Lily that we’re going to meet this weekend?” She looked over her shoulder at him.

“That’s right.”

“I’m looking forward to that.” Something in her voice told him she wasn’t. “We could have stayed here with you, Quinn,” she said, gesturing to the guest room—or whatever, the room that used to be Gerry’s.

“Lily wanted to put you up,” he fibbed. “And you’re right on the lake. It’s a really nice place.”

“We didn’t come here to sight-see. We came here to spend time with you.” She touched his arm as she moved down the hall toward the door.

“Well, you’ll do plenty of that,” he said helplessly. “Why don’t I walk you over to your cabin, then we’ll watch the movie, then I’ll show you the bar?”

Maria nodded. Clearly she was leading this thing. He ushered the three of them out—Theresa hadn’t said a word—and headed across the parking lot.

“So why do you want to sell if this is such a wonderful place?” Maria asked, tucking her arm through his.

Quinn grunted. His own mother had been distant and self-involved, nothing like Maria. He wasn’t exactly sure how to deal with her expectation of affection. “Too many memories.”

Rick made a sound of understanding as Quinn led them past the office—temporarily closed since Lily was probably selling corn dogs or ice cream or some damn thing at the movie—to the cabin she’d assigned them. This one was made of real logs, gorgeous golden red ones, with a front porch large enough for four people to sit in the patio chairs she must have put out earlier. He pushed open the door to the bright living room. The wall opposite the door was lined with windows and a sliding glass door that led to a deck overlooking the water. More patio chairs and a hammock invited guests to relax.

The place looked pretty damned good. Lily had a touch. He crossed to the kitchen and saw it was stocked with basics—eggs, milk, bottled water—and plates and cooking utensils were in the cabinets.

Behind him, Theresa made a sound of surprise. “Both bedrooms face the lake, and have a door to the deck!”

He smiled and peeked into the homey looking rooms, tiny but suitable for sleeping. Theresa emerged from hers with another one of those through-the-eyelashes looks that made him uneasy. He pivoted and walked out the sliding door onto the deck, bracing his hands on the rail. Not his thing, this playing host. He wished Lily was free.

Then Theresa joined him, and sat on the hammock so it swung. “It’s beautiful here. I see why you and Gerry loved it.”

He gave her a half-smile. “You should see it in winter.”

She leaned back, bracing her arms behind her. “Gerry said even then it was beautiful.”

He shifted his gaze back to the water. Safer than looking at her, at least the way she was acting. “Sure, but a hell of a lot of work.”

“That’s not why you want to leave, though.”

That she realized that alarmed him. “No.”

“Gerry loved you like a brother. He wouldn’t want you to be mourning for him the rest of your life.”

He sighed and turned away from the water, his arms folded. “I won’t be, once I’m out of here.”

She lay back on the hammock and crossed her ankles. “Do you really think that will make a difference? Won’t you miss this place? The people here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Seems like you should know before you make a decision like that.”

She had a point. But he didn’t want to think of it now, just wanted this weekend to be over, or at least wanted Lily to come and charm everyone, make his life easier. God knew she owed him that.

He pushed away from the rail. “You ready to head to the movie? I think tonight is western night. Young Guns or something.”

Sure enough, when they walked out of the cabin, they saw several people with straw cowboy hats, some western shirts, some cowboy boots. Quinn caught sight of Lily manning the ice cream booth wearing a red felt hat and grinning at a kid. Something inside him turned over, but he didn’t want to explore why, not now. He waved, but didn’t take the Parrillas over to meet her. There’d be time for that later.

He found a seat and cursed himself for not thinking to bring folding chairs or something. Instead, he helped Maria sit on the ground, then he and Theresa went off to get food.

***

Lily’s heart lurched when she saw Quinn walk by with a striking brunette. He bent sideways to hear something she said, and he smiled. Lily caught her breath at the rare sight. He looked so handsome with those straight white teeth, she couldn’t look away. Who was the woman? Only after a moment did she remember Gerry’s family was coming in today. Was this his sister? Quinn hadn’t said anything about his sister coming. But he certainly seemed glad she’d come along.